Somalia - The Scoop

The 26 factions of the National Salvation Council (NSC) are trying to get a central government together in the south but have been stymied by Hussein Farah Aideed-an ex-U.S. Marine with a disdain of idle rifles-whose trumped-up charges of "foreign intervention" have served as an excuse to keep the bullets whistling. As many as 60,000 Somalis have been killed since 1991-300,000 have died due to war-induced starvation. There has been no central government since 1991. Some semblance of order has returned to north Mogadishu, if only because folks there want to hang on to their limbs. The Islamic shari'a courts are the law here (you know, the folks who cut off hands for stealing)-the Jenny Craig of criminal justice. You, too, can lose weight fast. Meanwhile, Somalia has become the Ho Chi Minh Trail of the Ethiopian/Eritrean war. Hussein Aideed's forces are being beleaguered by the Ethiopian-backed Rahanwein Resistance Army as the Eritreans and Ethiopia duke out their own border war in Somalia's front yard. Aideed and the Somali National Front have enlisted the Eritreans' help, turning Somalia into a Rent-A-Battlefield for foreign armies. The Ethiopians have sent at least 5,000 soldiers into Somalia to ostensibly swap lead with the Ethiopian resistance group, the Oromo Liberation Front, who are trained by Aideed. The Eritreans have been sending arms to Aideed, who's been training the OLF at Coriolei, about 45 miles southwest of Mogadishu. The loser? The Somalis: a million people face serious food shortages and 400,000 are on the brink of starvation.